Factory Girl

Mohamed Khan's 2013 Egyptian film follows Hiyam, who works in a textile factory in Cairo. She is drawn to Salah, the factory's new supervisor, and believes the class difference can be crossed. When a rumour starts, everything changes. The matter at the centre is honour. A piece of gossip about Hiyam, regardless of whether it is true, leaves her defenceless both at work and in her neighbourhood. Khan shows the mechanism in detail: nobody accuses, everybody implies. Khan was among the leading figures of Egyptian realist cinema from the eighties onward, and this late film continues the same method: street shooting, real locations, natural light. Yasmine Raeis's performance carries it. Who it's for: those who like contemporary Egyptian cinema and woman-centred social drama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a clear outcome of justice; the film exposes the mechanism without breaking it.